Athletics

[220]

Just watched the Australian all schools championships and blown away.
If you havent heard the name Gout Gout you will.
He has been making headlines with world age record runs all year, very reminiscent of Bolt in his running style and has been drawing comparisons.
He is no where near that level yet but still only 16, just ran a 20.04 200m comes a day after a wind assisted 10.04 100m in heats and a legal 10.17 in the final. He seems to be improving 0.1 every second month.
His 20.04 is a new Australian national record breaking Peter Normans 20.06 when he ran 2nd in the 1968 Mexico city Olympics. Our national record had stood for 56 years.
His 20.29 last month was good enough for the 4th fastest U18 200m all time but todays run moves him to 2nd behind Erriyon Knighton and ahead of Usain Bolt and he still has over 2 years to compete in the U18 age group. He still has 2 years competing at high school level but I expect he will start competing in some senior international competitions next year.
Dont know what level this kid could attain, he certainly hasnt plateaued this year despite competing for nearly 12 months straight. Might still have some growing to do at 16 but is already close to 6'3" but at only 150lbs will almost certainly put on a lot more muscle.
For those wondering about the name he is of South Sudanese heritage his parents having immigrated to Australia a few years before he was born.

[The Wiz]

Read about him on the internet.

[220]

Here's a video with his run from yesterday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG9kwa5BvY0
Like I said he has been making headlines for a year or more but his rate of progression has been insane.
12 months ago his 200m PB was 20.87 it is now 20.04 think about it for a second a similar improvement over the rest of his career would have him within a few hundredths of Bolts 200m WR. Not much available on his splits but his top end speed and second 100 are already similar to the current best 200 sprinters in the world and he certainly has a lot of improvement left in his first 60m.
He is heading to the US early next year to train with Lance Brauman along side Noah Lyles. I suspect we might see another big jump in performance.
He will be 20 for the LA Olympics and 24 for the 2032 Olympics in his home town of Brisbane right in what should be the prime of his career, you could ask for things to be scripted any better.

[BrokenolMarine]

Wow, thanks for sharing. I love to see true athletes perform at the top of their game, no matter their sport. Track and field, gymnastics, diving, swimming... I hope his work in the US really helps and he stays focused. Let's hope he doesn't get led astray by the negative influences here. Yes, I said it. I'm sure the coaches and his family will keep a tight rein on that.

[220]

I am the same and love watching the progression of young athletes. His progression has been amazing.
He has already ruled out the US collage system as he signed a professional contract with Adidas a couple of months after the World U20 championships back in Aug where he ran a PB of 20.60 to finish 2nd. Unreal he has already improved that by over half a second in just a few months.
Luckly our Aus high School system allows kids to continue to compete even if they have signed professional contracts.
The US training is only a short term camp at this stage not a full time move, he is that raw and young he will surely benefit from it and if nothing else it will expose him to some of the very best adult sprinters in the world and what they put in to get to where they are.
I am excited by what he might do in the next 12 months, I expect he will compete in world championships later next year. He is already easily running qualification times and his time from the weekend would have been good enough to qualify 3rd for this years Olympic final and finish 6th in the final.
Maybe he is one of those athletes that hit their peak as a teenager and doesnt continue to improve. We had one of those about 25 years ago, 10.03 as a 19yo to be the fastest white man in history at the time and everyone was certain he would run well under 10 but never did.
Gout Gout is still only 16 and looks to be doing it on natural speed with so much room for improvement that you think he will almost certainly continue to improve and it is just a question of for how long and where it will have him when he finally gets to his full potential.

[220]

has been an exciting 6 months for Aus athletics, Gout Gout continues to improve, ran sub 10 twice and a 19.84 in the 200 but all with slight wind assistance.
Lachlan Kennady has really improved this season, finished 2nd at the indoor world championships in the 60m Beat Gout Gout over 200 in his first professional race, ran a 10,00 at nationals in the semis, only finished 2nd in the final beaten by Rowan Browning who ran a 10.01 to match his PB from the Tokyo olympics. Browning is on a comeback after being injured for a number of years.
Last weekend Lachie Kennady ran a 9.98 in Kenya to win the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, into a slight 0.7m/s headwind and after a delay for a false start beating the likes of Bayanda Walaza and Ferdinand Omanyala in the process. He is the last of the trio to run a sub 10 100m but the 1st to do it wind legal, it makes him only the 2nd Aussie to run a wind legal sub 10 and only the 5th white man in history.
Like I said exciting times for Aussie athletics I dont expect any of the trio to win medals at this years world champs but they will certainly be competitive and seeing one of them line up in a final would not be a total surprise,